Stanford University has started a review of interactions that some faculty members had with He Jiankui, the Chinese scientist who claims to have helped make gene-edited babies.

Several Stanford professors have said they knew or strongly suspected He wanted to try gene editing on embryos intended for pregnancy.

The work has been widely criticised since November, when He revealed the births of twins whose DNA he said he altered to try to help them resist possible future infection with the AIDS virus.

He Jiankui speaks during the Human Genome Editing Conference in Hong Kong on November 28. The official Xinhua News Agency said Monday that investigators in the southern province of Guangdong determined Dr He Jiankui organised and handled funding for the experiment without outside assistance in violation of national guidelines

An embryo receives a small dose of Cas9 protein and PCSK9 sgRNA in a sperm injection microscope in a laboratory in Shenzhen in southern China's Guangdong province

Share this article

Most scientists think gene editing for reproductive purposes is too risky to be tried yet because of the danger of harming other genes and because the DNA changes may be passed to future generations.

He did postdoctoral research at Stanford and began the gene editing project after returning to his homeland for a job at Southern University of Science and Technology of China in Shenzhen.

Several Stanford professors including He's former adviser, Stephen Quake; bioethicist Dr. William Hurlbut and genetics expert Dr. Matthew Porteus have said they were in contact with He over the last year.

Hurlbut and Porteus said they disapproved of and discouraged any such experiment. Quake said he only discussed the matter in broad, general terms with He.

This image shows a microplate containing embryos that have been injected with Cas9 protein using the controversial gene editing tool Crispr. The image was taken at Dr He's laboratory in Shenzhen last month

After He's work was revealed, Rice University in Houston announced an investigation into interactions between He and his former adviser at that school, Michael Deem.

On Thursday, Stanford spokesman E.J. Miranda said in an email that Stanford is reviewing 'the circumstances around Dr. He's interactions with researchers at the university.'

Miranda said he had no additional information on questions about who would do the review, what would be examined and how long it would take.

Hurlbut said Thursday that university officials suggested that he refer inquiries to them instead of responding himself. Porteus declined to comment. Quake did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

Zhou Xiaoqin, left, and Qin Jinzhou, an embryologist who were part of the team working with scientist He Jiankui, view a time lapse image of embryos on a computer screen at a lab in Shenzhen in south China's Guangdong province

This graphic reveals how, theoretically, an embryo could be 'edited' using the powerful tool Crispr-Cas9 to defend humans against HIV infection

Last month, Chinese investigators said He had evaded supervision of his work and violated research norms because he wanted to be famous. He was said to have organised and handled funding for the experiment without outside assistance in violation of national guidelines.

Between March 2017 and November 2018, He forged ethical review papers and recruited eight couples to participate in his experiment, resulting in two pregnancies. Five others did not result in fertilisation while one opted to leave the experiment.

One of the mothers gave birth to twins nicknamed 'Lulu' and 'Nana', the investigators said. Another woman is still carrying a gene-edited fetus. The Xinhua report said all three would remain under observation.

The report said He could face consequences, although it didn't say which regulations he may have broken.

WHAT ARE SOME OF THE DOUBTS SURROUNDING DR HE'S CLAIMS?

Several scientists reviewed materials that Dr He provided to the AP and said tests so far are insufficient to say the editing worked or to rule out harm.

They also noted evidence that the editing was incomplete and that at least one twin appears to be a patchwork of cells with various changes.

'It's almost like not editing at all' if only some of certain cells were altered, because HIV infection can still occur, famed Harvard University geneticist Professor George Church said.

Church and Dr Kiran Musunuru, a University of Pennsylvania gene editing expert, questioned the decision to allow one of the embryos to be used in a pregnancy attempt, because the Chinese researchers said they knew in advance that both copies of the intended gene had not been altered.

'In that child, there really was almost nothing to be gained in terms of protection against HIV and yet you're exposing that child to all the unknown safety risks,' Dr Musunuru said.

The use of that embryo suggests that the researchers' 'main emphasis was on testing editing rather than avoiding this disease,' Church said.

Even if editing worked perfectly, people without normal CCR5 genes face higher risks of getting certain other viruses, such as West Nile, and of dying from the flu.

Since there are many ways to prevent HIV infection and it's very treatable if it occurs, those other medical risks are a concern, Dr Musunuru said.

There also are questions about the way Dr He said he proceeded.

He gave official notice of his work long after he said he started it - on November 8, on a Chinese registry of clinical trials.